Emotional Reactions, Sentiment Disagreement, and Bitcoin Trading

Purpose - This study aims to explore the influence of emotional discrepancies among investors on the cryptocurrency market. It focuses on how varying emotions affect market dynamics such as volatility and trading volume in the context of Bitcoin trading. Design/methodology/approach - This study involves analyzing data from Bitcointalk.org, consisting of 57,963 posts and 2,215,776 responses from November 22, 2009, to December 31, 2022. Tools used include the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software for classifying emotional content and the Python Pattern library for sentiment analysis. Findings - The results show that heterogeneous emotional feedback, whether positive or negative, significantly influences Bitcoin's intraday volatility, skewness, and trading volume. These findings are more pronounced when the underlying emotion in the feedback is amplified. Research implications or Originality - This study underscores the significance of emotional factors in financial decision-making, especially within the realm of social media. It suggests that investors and market strategists should consider the emotional landscape of online forums when making investment choices or formulating market strategies. The research also paves the way for future studies regarding the behavioral impact of emotions on the cryptocurrency market.